One peculiar corner of the web

Bolt Action

As part of our demo day at Sentry Box we ran a 1000pt Bolt Action game with my Germans and Palmer’s Americans. This was the largest game we have run yet and had the widest number of units and vehicles that we’ve used.

We played Hold Until Relieved with Palmer attacking and my Germans defending. The Hotel in the centre of the table was the objective for the game. Palmer was attacking from the right (in the photo above) and had placed his three infantry units in the two rightmost farm houses and in the orchard. I placed an MMG team in the upper floor of the Hotel and an infantry squad in the ruined church next to it.(more…)

Just a quick post to show a photo of my 28mm Warlord StuG G. I’ve just done a pin wash on it and am cleaning up the wash before doing some further work.

Warlord Games 28mm StuG G

I have the schurzen which I will also be attaching. Next up is some more cleaning and then a dry brush and then the camo. The photo is coming out a lot more yellow than it looks on my desktop. I blame the “natural” light bulbs.

I had a few hours to myself today so I managed to get some painting done. I started work on the leIG18 and crew as well as the StuG III G for my Bolt Action force. I also started work on PanO Military Order starter set. The StuG III is still in parts as I need to paint the tracks prior to attaching them (its just easier) and then the main body and schurzen need to be painted and then assembled once most of the work on the body has been completed.

Oddly I am finding the StuG less intimidating than the leIG18 crew. Something about having to get all the colours on the uniform correct is causing me to stress about painting them. The PanO figures are for the local Infinity Escalation league. I suspect that I will miss the first two weeks due to the twin’s soccer schedule but I want to attempt to keep up with the rest of the players so I don’t get too far behind.

Palmer and I spent Sunday at The Sentry Box running a demo of the Bolt Action WWII rules for some local gamers. We had four people who came to the store to check out that game with three of them playing and a fourth just watching and asking questions.

The table was set up with a farm on one half and a wooded, hilly section on the other. Sadly I don’t have enough tress to really create the effect I wanted so it looked more sparse than I was hoping for.

After dragging my terrain and figures to Sentry Box for a few games I decided to move some of my painting supplies and fixtures to a different table so I can clear off my 4′ x 8′ table and start to use it for games. It was originally my gaming table when we were in Vancouver but when we moved to Calgary it, for a series of different reasons, primarily became a storage space and then a place for my painting table.

It is one thing though to bring down a small number of figs to Sentry Box and use the terrain there for a game and its quite another to drag down a full Bolt Action army and two boxes of terrain for a game. So my painting station has been moved to my work table (which doesn’t get used for work a lot to be honest) and I am in the process of cleaning off the rest of the detritus from the table so it will be clear to use for gaming.

This also means that it will be clear for other games but the aim is to make a space for Bolt Action and the other WWII games that I am planning on playing.

Palmer and I met up at Sentry Box to play a 750pt Bolt Action game. I was hoping to have my StuG G at least primed and assembled for the game but was unable to get out to get some Dunkel Gelb primer. The Warlord StuG I picked up really needs to have the parts primed prior to any assembly so that meant the vehicle was AWOL for this game.

Instead I took some additional infantry, artillery observer, a spotter for my Medium Mortar team and a sniper. Palmer’s force was very similar to the last game with the addition of a Forward Air Observer, Light Mortar team and an armoured car.

Instead of the ruined French village terrain we used previously, I pulled out the farm terrain I had as well as the new hedge terrain pieces I picked up. It meant a bit more terrain on the table but not a lot more and certainly not as much as I would want for a larger game.

Palmer and I met up at Sentry Box for another 500pt Bolt Action game. I brought out essentially the same force as our last game, as did Palmer, with the exception of substituting my mortar team for a flame-thrower team. We rolled the maximum Attrition scenario and set up the terrain to represent a small French village with a road running through it.

Palmer dropped by the house today and we had a small, 500 pt, game of Bolt Action using my mostly unpainted Germans against Palmer’s US troops.

We played on my dining room table. I put a piece of cardboard from our heater on the table to make it a 4′ x 5′ area. Not big enough for a full game but certainly good enough for a 500pt game.

The gaming matt and buildings are mine but Palmer brought along some roads that me had made from some roofing tiles. Very nicely made and they certainly added to the look of the table even if they didn’t get any actual use. (more…)

My parcel from North Star Figures arrived today containing some Bolt Action/Chain of Command German figures as well as a pack of French Foreign Legion command figures for my IHMN company.

For my WWII German force I picked up an leIG 18 Infantry Gun, an 81mm mortar team and a pack of Panzerfaust/Panzerschrek figures from Artizan. All of the German minis were plagued by some serious flash which is a first for me for miniatures from Artizan. As well I had to try to figure out how the leIG 18 went together. It was obvious after fiddling with the parts for a bit but after being spoiled by PSC and Zveda with their numerous build instructions it was a bit disconcerting having to puzzle the model together.

I’ve left the leIG 18 gun assembled but not included on the base with the team to make it easier to paint both it and the infantry miniatures. That will also make it easier to sand the base and get it decorated before putting the gun back on.

Everything is assembled and based now and is just waiting to have some sane put on the bases and then primed. The weather took a turn for the worse recently with temperatures dropping below -10 again so I will have to wait a bit for a chance to prime the miniatures I have waiting to paint.